News

Electrifying Portland's Living Room

Author: Jeremy Dalton

Posted: October 4, 2012

The Portland region has been electrifying transportation since the appearance of the first Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light rail train in 1986. Today there are four MAX lines - with a fifth line coming in 2015 - serving 85 stations and well over 100,000 boardings per day.

The MAX light rail, the Portland Streetcar, which serves over 12,000 riders daily in downtown Portland and the inner Eastside, and the Portland Aerial Tram, which links the Oregon Health Sciences University on Marquam Hill to the South Waterfront, are all components of Portland's world famous transportation system. And they are all 100% electric.

During the last two years, Portland State University and its partners have been actively involved in introducing and evaluating the next step in transportation electrification: all-electric and plug-in hybrid cars, trucks, and bicycles. One of the cornerstone EV initiatives is Electric Avenue (pdx.edu/electricavenue) the nationally acclaimed research and development project on SW Montgomery Street on the PSU campus.